Maddalena
Feminine · “of Magdala”
Maddalena is the Italian form of Magdalene, and the woman it belongs to is named for a town — Magdala, whose name means a tower.
How old is the name Maddalena?
Maddalena first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Maddalena alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 800 people named Maddalena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maddalena most popular?
Maddalena peaked in 1966, reaching #3400 nationally. Today it ranks #4460, 1,060 places below that high. See the whole 1966 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Maddalena
Ours, offered as ours. The Gospels have a crowd of Marys and distinguish them by address or relation — Mary of Magdala, Mary of Bethany, Mary the mother of James. That is not a naming convention peculiar to scripture; it is how everyone in that world was identified, because the stock of given names was small and everybody needed a second label. Magdalene is therefore a postcode. Italian gives Maddalena and it has been well used there for centuries.
Meaning
of Magdala
From Hebrew migdal, a tower, which names the fishing town of Magdala on the Sea of Galilee; the epithet Magdalene distinguishes one Mary from the several others in the Gospels.
Pronouncing Maddalena
mahd-dah-LAY-nah
Four syllables with the stress on the third; the doubled d is held in Italian.
Nicknames for Maddalena
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1916
- Most girls named
- 201632 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3400reached in 1966
- Change vs 2024
- +63.2%31 in 2025, from 19
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Maddalena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maddalena in Italian — same name
- Magdalene in English — same name
- Magdalena in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Pennsylvania.
Maddalenas among us
people named Maddalena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 51,847 born in 2025 was named Maddalena
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maddalena
- #4460
- Maddalena on the 2025 chart
- #912
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maddalena went to 31 girls in 2025, but Madalena is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 48, which makes it the 912th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,548 places above the chart.
- Maddalena31
- Madalena17
About 1 girl in 33,485 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 51,847 for Maddalena itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Malita test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maddalena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Malita climbed just as high around 1921, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Malita's path sketches the road Maddalena is walking now.
Maddalena sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Maddalena is headed
Maddalena should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Maddalena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maddalena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning tied to a real place with a documented name.
- Lena is a complete short form with its own long history.
- Very well used in Italy, so it has a large community behind it.
- Nine letters and four syllables is a great deal for early handwriting.
- Magdalena is the Spanish form and far more common in America.
- The doubled d is held in Italian and flattened by English speakers.
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Maddalena
Feminine · #4460 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maddalenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Maddalena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maddalena?
- Maddalena is the most-used spelling in US records — 31 of the 48 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Madalena.
- How popular is the name Maddalena in 2025?
- Maddalena ranks #4460 among US girl names in 2025, with 31 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maddalena?
- About 1 in every 51,847 US girls born in 2025 was named Maddalena — 31 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maddalena with classmates?
- Maddalena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maddalena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jayce#4460 · Nikita#4460 · Magali#4460 · Emari#4460 · Rilyn#4460 · Danyla#4460 · Lynleigh#4460 · Mandy#4460
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maddalena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maddalena and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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